BT customers are ignorant and rude

Cornucopia

VisionMan wrote: »

Agreed, but I thought they were based in South Africa.

Pretty sure they were Indian (spoken to 3 or 4 ops over a few week period). Supervisor had a weird transatlantic accent.

I'm normally good with accents. I would have known if they were from SA. Perhaps they have more than one call centre?

disclaimer: I don't think companies should be exporting service industry jobs overseas. I wouldn't normally do business with any company that does. (Talktalk fooled me by having their sales call centre in the UK).

VisionMan

Thats the main problem with the majority of call centres in the UK. They are abroad!

But both BT and TT have started opening UK call centres now. Four new for BT and one for TT. Suppose its a start (hopefully).

POPPYOSCAR

Is it rudeness or just frustration though?

You can only say the same thing, so many times, and to so many different people without losing the will to live.

solentsusie

I left BT because of the poor customer service and packages/charges being added to my bill that I did not ask for. Phoning their customer services was always a nightmare.

A lot of the time the rudeness and frustration is not directed directly at the person dealing with the complaint. If you are trained well then you will realise this. It is not personal it is frustration with the organisation itself and its inept customer service strategy overall.

I have sympathy with anyone who works in a call centre but you have to be able to handle it otherwise you need to consider a different job. I know if I have had to wait, press numerous different buttons just to get to a human being (and been cut off in the process and had to start again!) I am pretty frustrated. Not at the person but at the organisation. I have even apologised before I have gone into a rant stating clearly that my frustration is not directed at them personally but at the company and the service levels it provides. And I have also thanked staff when they have been particularly helpful. Swings and roundabouts.

Rev

Because people are sick to the back teeth of being lied to by call centre workers.

Person has problem. Looks on website. Is told to contact CS. Calls CS. Gets through to someone who can't understand them, has to repeat everything 10 times.


Call centre worker finally grasps problem. Has no idea of solution. Lies about issue being resolved.


Issue persists. Rince and repeat until customer gets annoyed enough to escalate to complaint.


I left BT last year. And can honestly say they are the most incompetent bunch of muppets I've ever had the displeasure of dealing with. No less than 30 calls (having to repeat everything each time because the notes that you're told will be put on the account never are). Each CS rep tells you something different. And none of it ever truthful.


In the end I had to email the CEO. And get it sorted that way.


All I wanted to do was close the account. It took three months. I'd set up a direct debut for payment. It wasn't being taken. It wasn't taken for over 12 months. I wasn't informed payment wasn't being taken. At all. In any way. The DD wasn't bouncing because my bank alert me when that happens. They just weren't taking the money.


I didn't realise. I'd just lost my mother so checking BT we're taking their cash was the last of my worries. As soon as I did realise I called them. They admitted they had no idea why the usual alerts hadn't triggered on my account. But if course they blamed me. At one point their supervisor called me a liar and said my mothers death shouldn't have been prioritised over checking my bank to be sure BT we're being paid.


In all those calls I made to BT I spoke to one person who showed competence. One person in god knows how many.


Perhaps if BT call centre workers weren't idiotic, lying muppets customers wouldn't be so rude.

VisionMan

Talking about most companies in general, these problems will continue until they move their call centres back to the UK and give them the required amount of training.

Pincher

Have you considered the psychological cruelty of sitting an intelligent person who knows the subtleties of network design in a call centre and force him to deal with the average customer? I estimate I would start work on Monday, and end up coming in with a machine gun by Wednesday. Or possibly a suicide vest.

To cope with the onslaught of near identical calls day in day out, they had to genetically engineer a particular kind of battery hen. The chicken is trained to react to different tones in the caller's voice. The chicken then pecks at some levers, which will trigger pre-recorded messages like "Please switch off the modem and the router."

The chicken is rewarded if a call goes well, so it learns to judge the tone of the customer and tries different pecking sequences to release the most food. The chicken is not trying to lie to you, it just wants to please you, using the limited range of responses at its disposal.

Perversely, this work occupies the battery hen's limited mind, and relieves the stress of being cooped up. The farmer doubles his income, since the chicken can still be sold to KFC at the end of its working life.

prowla

I'm not - I told BT to frack off and went to Sky.